As both Maxine Greene and Paulo Freire would remind that obstacles must be named before being transcended, the author writes then with the intention of naming, and he names with the hope of transcending. For the purposes of this paper, transcendence means the replacement of a homogenizing public school system--one that indoctrinates children towards corporatism, economism, militarism, and crass consumerism--with a more humanizing schooling--schooling that helps children develop the capacities necessary for the development of a pluralistic and organic democratic social order, flawed as some might find humanization and democracy to be. As naming each impediment along that expansive continuum would: (1) read more like a shopping list than a persuasive argument; and (2) depress even the most persistent optimist, the author limits this analysis to one type of obstacle: the neointellectual. Simply put, the neointellectual is a "willing tool" who uses power, politics, and fear to perpetuate anti-democratic school initiatives. Neointellectuals serve power in the face of people, using pseudoscience and fear to forward corporate orthodoxy and dogma, sweeping people and issues "under the rug" as they work to maintain the present social order: high capitalism. The author presents a short history and a contemporary critique that will justify this claim. (Contains 101 notes.)